


you don’t know?

by jjerkbender



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Agni Kai, Canonical Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Ozai’s A+ Parenting (Avatar), Zuko’s Scar (Avatar), obligatory “gaang finds out about zuko’s scar” fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:41:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25717447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjerkbender/pseuds/jjerkbender
Summary: zuko didn’t know that they didn’t. after all, wasn’t it reasonable to assume the whole world knew about his greatest embarrassment?
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Suki & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 38
Kudos: 1019





	you don’t know?

**Author's Note:**

> hey! just wanted to mention that there is a brief one sentence description of zuko’s memories of the agni kai and what it felt like, it isn’t graphic and doesn’t go into much detail but in case you’re sensitive to that here is your warning :) (could be canon other than the minor change I made in which the gaang doesn’t know that zuko was banished)

_“You don’t know?”_

It had been a peaceful day, minus the part where Zuko had to attack Aang because, spirits, _why didn’t he get it?_

Why were they all so relaxed? Didn’t it matter that the world was ending?

And Katara had said-she had said that they planned to attack after the comet? _What._

So Zuko explained. He explained the meeting; his words and Azula’s, Ozai’s plan, and the death and destruction that would follow.

“My father,” he spit out the words. “Is going to burn down the earth kingdom. He’ll destroy everything. There’s no time to-to waste time! Take this seriously.”

He took a deep breath in as he noticed everyone watching him warily. “I wish I had said something, but we all know how that ended up last time.”

“What do you mean?”

It was an innocent enough question from Sokka. But.

They didn’t know?

(I chased them for so long-)

_They didn’t know?_

(And they don’t know why?)

“You don’t-what?”

(Father doesn’t love me-) 

(He never will-)

(I want to go home.)

“Zuko,” Katara said tentatively. “Are you okay?”

“You don’t-you dont know why I was chasing you?”

He was met with silence. An icy sensation crept through his veins. He wanted to scream.

“And you didn’t ask?”

“You’re our friend now.” Aang smiled. “It doesn’t really matter.”

“But-what?”

It didn’t make sense. None of it did. 

“You don’t know why I was banished?”

Sokka’s eyes widened. “You were banished?”

What?

_What?_

Everyone looked intrigued. Zuko pointed at his scar. “So you don’t know how this happened either?”

“I mean, we just assumed it was a training accident,” Katara shrugged.

He scoffed. “Training accident? _Training accident?_ ” Zuko stuck his arm in the campfire, maintaining eye contact with Katara. He pulled it out after several seconds and held it out for her to see. “Firebenders don’t burn easy.”

“So someone did that to you. On purpose,” Toph said, realization dawning on her face.

“Someone?” He clenched his jaw. “It was my father.”

The incessant chirping of crickets filled the silence which had fallen upon them. They stared. He stared back. 

“It was pretty stupid, really,” he laughed ruefully. “Uncle let me into a war meeting I wasn’t supposed to be at, a general proposed a plan to sacrifice a bunch of soldiers as bait, I said it was ridiculous and was challenged to an Agni Kai.”

“A duel between firebenders,” he added, seeing their confused expressions. “It ends when someone gets burned.”

He could almost see the cogs turning in their heads.

“I accepted, thinking I would be facing the general, who was fucking ancient. I was young and arrogant, and frankly I don’t think I could have taken that general even if he was the one I fought.”

“You had to fight your father,” Suki said. It wasn’t a question. 

He nodded. “Yeah, because apparently since it was his war room, I had disrespected him. It wasn’t much of a fight, though. I just-“

He shut his eyes against the memories, the bile rising in his throat, the agony of feeling his skin melt, the screaming-

“I begged for mercy, for forgiveness. But,” he sighed, pointing to his face. “I guess we know how that went.”

He opened his eyes to looks of sympathy. A fire burned within him. Sympathy. What a useless feeling. 

“Don’t pity me,” he snapped. “I just can’t believe you didn’t know. I thought everyone did.”

“I mean, the southern water tribe was pretty cut off from the rest of the world,” Sokka said quietly, cocking an eyebrow. “Aang was stuck in an iceberg for 100 years. Kyoshi island is pretty remote, and I doubt Toph’s parents would let her hear about that kind of gossip, although it’s pretty unlikely that they even knew-“

“Of course they knew!” Zuko hissed. “ _Everyone knew!_ There was an audience, and people cheered, they cheered watching the firelord burn a child. I was a child! And I didn’t deserve it.”

“Of course you didn’t, Zuko,” Katara whispered shakily. “Nobody’s saying that you did.”

“They do! He spread his stupid lies in his stupid nation and-“ his entire body shook.

(It was cruel and it was wrong it was cruel and it was wrong _it was cruel and it was wrong_ -)

A small hand gripped his wrist. “Sit down, Sparky.”

Toph grabbed his shoulders and shoved him towards the ground. He landed on a chair that hadn’t been there a second ago. She loomed over him and Zuko fought the urge to shrink away from her. She was small, but she was terrifying.

“Your heartbeat was going crazy,” she clarified. 

Toph looked-upset?

“Are you okay?” He asked.

She nearly exploded.

“Am _I_ okay? What the hell?! You tell us that your dad was the one who burned half your face off-“

“It’s not half-“ he interrupted.

“I don’t care! You tell us that and ask if I’m okay? I’m upset as hell, if that’s what you’re concerned about. God, you’re-you’re insufferable!”

Was she-was she angry on his behalf?

“Um, I’m sorry?”

“The hell are you apologizing for, you stupid-“

“When did this happen?” Aang interjected, probably trying to diffuse the situation. “And how…” he trailed off. How did it relate to his quest to capture the avatar?

“3 years ago. I was 13. I was banished, and the only way I could return home was if I captured you.”

“But-but Aang wasn’t out of the iceberg until…” Katara faltered.

“He probably would’ve killed me if there wasn’t an audience. He tried doing that a couple weeks ago, actually. Does it seem like he wanted me back? I was never supposed to come home.”

Home. The word tasted metallic in his mouth. He didn’t really have a home, did he?

“Zuko, I’m...I’m really sorry that happened to you,” Suki whispered.

“You’re sorry?” He was incredulous. “For what?”

“That your dad is an asshole,” Sokka grimaced. “And that he burned you and banished you.”

“That he tried to kill you,” Toph added in a hushed voice.

“That you thought it was your fault,” Aang said, smiling sadly.

(It was cruel and it was wrong-)

“I-how could you possibly-“

“If you knew it was wrong before, you wouldn’t have done what you did.”

Zuko fell silent. Aang was right.

“I’m sor-“

“Shut up!” Katara yelled, springing up. “Just-just shut up. Three years? You searched for Aang for three years while he may as well have been dead?!”

“Y-yeah? That’s why I knew about this place-“

“Three years,” she repeated. “Wow, everything makes a lot more sense now but seriously, what the fu-“

“Zuko, I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry!” Aang frantically gestured with his hands. “I’m not mad at you, I was just making sense of your actions. You always seemed...desperate, rather than just bad. I guess this explains why.”

“Well.” His voice was barely a whisper, knowing he couldn’t trust it at full volume. 

(My father was a monster.)

(He is a monster.)

(He is a monster that I used to love.)

The silence was heavy, and on the verge of getting seriously awkward. This had to stop.

“Well,” he started again. “Now you know. And I’m going to bed.”

A hand grabbed his shoulder as he rose. “Wait.”

Fighting back the urge to flinch, he turned around to face Sokka. “What?”

At most, Zuko was expecting more words of sympathy and that revolting look of pity that people always gave him when they saw his face. He was not expecting to be pulled into a fierce hug.

Ignoring his feeble protests, the hug was joined by Katara, Aang, Suki, and Toph.

There was an unspoken agreement between all of them;

_We are your family now. This is your home._

“Wait, you weren’t kidding about him burning down the earth kingdom, were you?”

**Author's Note:**

> well I hated the ending but I was too tired to fix it or come up with anything better, so here is my half assed rendition of this prompt :D let me know your thoughts in the comments! thank you for reading!!


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